"The stories of evolution have the power to unite all peoples."
~ Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan"

"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution"
~ Theodosius Dobzhansky

"Little in evolution makes sense except in the light of Lynn Margulis' contributions".
~ Cathy Russell

"Life is matter that chooses."
~ Lynn Margulis

"I greatly admire Lynn Margulis's sheer courage and stamina in sticking by the endosymbiosis theory, and carrying it through from being an unorthodoxy to an orthodoxy. I'm referring to the theory that the eukaryotic cell is a symbiotic union of primitive prokaryotic cells. This is one of the great achievements of twentieth-century evolutionary biology, and I greatly admire her for it."
~Richard Dawkins

"The idea tht we are “stewards of the earth” is another symptom of human arrogance. Imagine yourself with the task of overseeing your body’s physical processes. Do you understand the way it works well enough to keep all its systems in operation? Can you make your kidneys function? . . . Are you conscious of the blood flow through your arteries? . . . We are unconscious of most of our body’s processes, thank goodness, because we’d screw it up if we weren’t. The human body is so complex, with so many parts. . . . The idea that we are consciously caretaking such a large and mysterious system is ludicrous."
~ Lynn Margulis

The notion of saving the planet has nothing to do with intellectual honesty or science. The fact is that the planet was here long before us and will be here long after us. The planet is running fine. What people are talking about is saving themselves and saving their middle-class lifestyles and saving their cash flow."
~ Lynn Margulis

Celebrating Lynn Margulis

Think expansively.

Lynn was a great thinker, an inspiring teacher, and a courageous communicator who radically advanced our understanding of the Epic of Evolution.

Lynn's perspective on life was huge. Not only did she think outside the box, she thought outside of biology, outside of science and outside of convention. Not only was she one of the greatest biologists of the 20th century, offering one of the most important evolutionary ideas of all time (symbiogenesis in cell evolution), she was one of our most profound and comprehensive thinkers who invited us to see the Earth as an organism and suggested that we see evolution as more than competition.

In addition to having a great mind, she had a huge heart. This combination made her an inspiring teacher. She taught with passion, curiousity, humility, compassion. She treated her students like family and insisted that family come first. While Lynn's student at Boston University, I gained a much deeper understanding of the Epic of Evolution. Because of Lynn's Five Kingdoms (later Six Kingdoms), every biology textbook now provides a better understanding of evolution and how people are related to all other life.

Lynn was also one of the most courageous people I have ever met. Even when peers attacked her for radical insights, she continued to champion ideas that ran against the grain of popular thought.

"This is the issue I have with neo-Darwinists: They teach that what is generating novelty is the accumulation of random mutations in DNA, in a direction set by natural selection. If you want bigger eggs, you keep selecting the hens that are laying the biggest eggs, and you get bigger and bigger eggs. But you also get hens with defective feathers and wobbly legs. Natural selection eliminates and maybe maintains, but it doesn’t create." ~ Lynn Margulis

Most recently, Lynn was skewered for because she didn't agree with the idea that point mutations create genetic variation responsible for evolution. Because of the complexity of molecular biology and mobile genetic elements (transposons, retrotransposons, plasmids, SINEs, LINEs, crossover and recombination during meiosis, etc,) it is challenging for people to understand what she was talking about. These mobile genetic elements are responsible for horizontal gene transfer, which is the primary mechanism for creating genetic variation, NOT point mutations. Because she disagreed that point mutations cause evolution, some claim that Margulis was against evolution. This is absurd. What she was against was teaching evolution from a 19th century perspective that ignores the origin of genetic variation. Darwin didn't know about the origins of genetic variation, because he didn't know about genes or DNA. To teach Darwinian natural selection while ignoring the origin of genetic variation is ludicrous. It's like saying human culture evolved because of war, while ignoring the role of communication in its various forms: literature, art, music, education. Darwin himself would have scoffed at anyone who insisted that natural selection provides a full explanation of biological evolution.

Like Steve Jobs who died last month, Margulis was passionate about her work and believed that truth would set us free. Like Jobs, she was so passionate about sharing great ideas with the world that she didn't have the time to sugarcoat some of her ideas, which made her (like Jobs) feel abrasive to some. As with Jobs, the world is a much better place because she lived and loved and shared her passion with us all.

by Cathy Russell, Thanksgiving, 11/24/2011.

Lynn Margulis Support for NCSE - http://ncse.com/news/2011/11/lynn-margulis-dies-006966

Cathy Pointing to Iridium Layer

Lynn enthusiastically shared her passion for discovery.

Symbiosis in Cell Evolution

Celebrating Lynn Margulis

Think expansively.

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